---
title: But when the Lion saw that the Ass was his for the taking, he first… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: But when the Lion saw that the Ass was his for the taking, he first of all struck down the traitor Fox. Who acts: Lion, Ass, Fox. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Ass, the Fox, and the Lion, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Ass, the Fox, and the Lion, sentence 13

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But when the Lion saw that the Ass was his for the taking, he first of all struck down the traitor Fox.

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**Who acts:** Lion, Ass, Fox · **What happens:** see, be, strike down · **To what, where:** traitor Fox · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Ass, the Fox, and the Lion. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Lion, Ass, Fox), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg19994:44:13
# text = But when the Lion saw that the Ass was his for the taking, he first of all struck down the traitor Fox.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Lion	Lion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Ass	Ass	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	taking	taking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
16	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	19	advmod	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	obl	_	_
19	struck	strike	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	ccomp	_	_
20	down	down	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	traitor	traitor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	Fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the Lion |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | past | the Ass |  |  |  |  | for Lion's taking | tree rules |
| 3 | **strike down** | participle | Fox | the traitor Fox |  |  |  | first *property* | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent fox=Instrument |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, Project Gutenberg book 19994 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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